I came home from my guild’s June meeting with this bundle:
It’s a few prints from the lovely Indian Summer for Art Gallery Fabrics by Sarah Watson, donated to our guild for charity quilting by the designer herself, plus some pitch-perfect solids chosen and donated by Peg @ Sew Fresh Fabrics.
Those of us who had the bandwidth to work on a baby quilt during the summer months divided up into four groups, and four fabric bundles. I took my group’s bundle first, and we agreed to do a round-robin-style top (well, as well as we can with two of us piecing and the third of us quilting), so I was to make a “medallion.”
I wanted to stretch my improv piecing skills (isn’t that the spirit of round-robin quilting?). So I sat down last Friday and came up with this:
And here is where we apologize to Sarah Watson, because this is an incredibly inadequate iPhone snap of her gorgeous materials. (You can also see that I sew at our small dining table–Janome and “Cinderella mat” coexist in a fragile peace.) In the center, I did three Oh, Fransson! interlocking sparkle punch stars, but with 2.5” squares instead of her tutorial’s 3.5” squares.
And then, I borrowed the tent-mountain-tree motif of one of the prints and did an equilateral triangle border. I took a glance at this tutorial at about dot com about rocking your plain old straight rotary ruler back and forth to cut equilateral triangles. Guys, it’s so easy, that I didn’t even screw it up the first time I cut. I’m no longer afraid of 60-degree triangles, so watch out, world.
And mostly, I kept my points intact too, when I sewed them up, so yay.
I took one more naptime-sewing session and finished up my part this past Monday. There are feathers in the dark teal print I used as a border, and, of course, that calls for some Anna Maria Horner Feathers. I spent an entire three-hour nap cutting and piecing these two darling feathers. I don’t think the feather-making process is usually this difficult, but I was trying so hard to conserve fabric that I did some little funky things–see the top left side of the vertical feather, for example.
And then I rushed the whole bundle, top, fabrics, and all, five towns north of me, without ever getting out my real camera once.
Here’s hoping I will have real photos to share of a finished baby quilt. I can’t wait to see what the rest of my team does with this bundle!
little and lots 
That is a really cute top! I can’t believe you can get that much done during naps… Love the design. It all comes together with that Indian theme!
It is a beautiful section. I love all the new techniques.
Lovely to see your process, it looks fantastic. Thanks for the link to the feathers I was looking for a tutorial the other day but couldn’t find one. What colour is that blue solid in the centre?
Um. Hello so much to love here including that Cinderella mat!!! This is gorgeous. I am thanking you from the bottom of my heart for the triangle link. That’s one of my next attempts!!! Happy Sunday to ya, laura!!
Love this improv so far you are doing a great job. I think the three hours paid off because those feathers look great to me!
Hey Laura do you know the color names of the solids that they gave you are? turquoise and gray? A friend and I are exchanging quilt tops and I am making the fireworks pattern by thimble and blossom with this line. I was thinking of doing a gray background. Brenda suggested going with kona ash. Man I need to buy a color card. Anyways I thought I would ask you your opinion since you have worked with the fabrics. Thanks!